15.12.07

Atypical Beings

The blind belief in homogeneous reality entails the externalization of aberration and the rejection of anomalies, being these considered meaningless. In many cultures, there is a tendency to regard exceptions to the rule (and especially those which cannot be explained) as something uninteresting. Aberrations are not questioned. Nor is their value in throwing light upon the nature of the systems from which they have been excluded. Anomalies are not considered valuable sources of information about the usual or the ordinary. In this way, problems are externalized and remain outside the area of investigation.[1]

Unusual as they are, the cases to be considered necessarily involve abnormality or aberration. Yet, it is hard to determine whether the so-called anomalous cases are in fact "accidents" of Nature or some of Her "caprices." Nevertheless, the cases in the present study can be ANOMALIES OF NATURE.

Definition of ANOMALY. n [C] 1. Something strange and unusual. 2. Something out of the ordinary, very different from what is expected, or deviating from the usual type or norm. 3. An unusual irregularity or disproportion.

According to Dante Alighieri, "Nature is the art of God."[3] Yet, one wonders whether His Art encompasses all aspects of Nature. Since medieval times, the existence of atypical beings was exploited to establish some sort of didactic contrast: as evil was necessary to understand good, and so was the exception to explain the rule. Medieval tradition saw the anomalous as the artifice of Satan, associating the malformed and the distorted with evil. From the Renaissance on, this approach was counterbalanced by scientific research. Based on the observation of Nature, modern research explained the anomalous as the result of irregular embryonic development (genetics) or rare maladies (pathology).

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